Attention quotes
2.5K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
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Browse quotes that often appear alongside attention — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
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"We are so anxious to achieve some particular end that we never pay attention to the psycho-physical means whereby that end is to be gained. So far as we are concerned, any old means is good enough. But the nature of the universe is such that ends can never justify the means. On the contrary, the means always determine the end."
"If you have had your attention directed to the novelties in thought in your own lifetime, you will have observed that almost all really new ideas have a certain aspect of foolishness when they are first produced, and almost any idea which jogs you out of your current abstractions may be better than nothing."
"I think it's tough when you're very young and you maybe fall for the celebrity and being the center of attention."
"I grow very impatient with prose writers who don't pay attention to the cadence of the sentence. If you start as a poet, you're wooed by the music of language; you want to put that into your practice."
"Learning to focus attention and concentration is very useful; meditation can help you do that."
"I've been dyslexic and had Attention Deficit Disorder at some time in my life. I still read with a highlighter, but I've always loved to read."
"Seeing yourself in print is such an amazing concept: you can get so much attention without having to actually show up somewhere... You don't have to dress up, for instance, and you can't hear them boo you right away."
"There is ecstasy in paying attention."
"Silly trends don't last long. A lot of this nonsense that pops up, I don't even really pay attention because it'll be gone in a flash."
"My whole life everyone always said 'it can't be done', 'you'll never do it', 'you will fail', 'no one has ever gone from Austria and become a Mr Universe, blah, blah, blah', or when I ran for governor people were sceptical. It was 'you're going to lose' and 'people don't take people from show-business seriously in politics'. So, I've heard all the 'it's impossible' thing but I didn't pay any attention because I believed that I could do it."
"Have you tried to drive a harpoon through a body? No? Tut, tut, my dear sir, you must really pay attention to these details."
"When a man feels fear without reason, you call him to the attention of a psychiatrist; you are not so careful to protect the meaning, the nature and the dignity of love."
"It ought to be the happiness and glory of a representative to live in the strictest union, the closest correspondence, and the most unreserved communication with his constituents. Their wishes ought to have great weight with him; their opinion, high respect; their business, unremitted attention."
"The author always loads his dice, but he must never let the reader see that he has done so, and by the manipulation of his plot, he can engage the reader's attention so that he does not perceive the violence that has been done to him."
"We spend a big hunk of our lifetimes contemplating what we can't have, what we don't want and what's missing in our lives. What we have to learn is to put our attention and focus on contemplating what it is we would like to attract, and not on what is missing."
"Don't allow the approval and attention of others to destroy you."
"I have manifested everything I want in the way of physical things. I have a beautiful family and enough abundance to take care of them. I put my attention on manifesting for other people, helping those who are less fortunate."
"If there's a distinction between men and women, I don't pay attention to it. Honestly, I don't see it. I think all of us are part feminine and part masculine."
"I grew up fascinated with comedy and with people who could capture someone's attention."
"Our beliefs and our attention are the same fact."
